


Run Boy Run

by Hexyah



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Good Father Giovanni, Other, Vampire Simon Lewis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21621544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexyah/pseuds/Hexyah
Summary: When Simons life takes a turn for, possible the worst, Simon runs away from New York only to find himself in company with some rather unique individuals. With no where else to really go, and a secret that could, is, changing his life, Simon decides to stay and try to start a new chapter in, whats left, of his life. But some of the shadows from his past life are still on the hunt for him.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment, would love to know what you think, also I'll probably add more tags as the story goes on. Have a good day.

As soon as Raphael’s back hit the truck Simon ran not knowing where his legs were carrying him. Flashes of New York went by as he ran until the scenery started to fade into unfamiliar streets until everything around him looked foreign and strange. Simon didn’t slow down when suddenly he hit something hard. Simon fell to his feet as pain exploded from his face. He didn’t get up though, he just laid there and breathing heavily when he remembered that he didn’t breathe anymore. The fact scared Simon, he had just ran from New York to g-who knows where-and his lungs weren’t burning for air. Simon continued to lay there for a bit more before picking himself up to see where he was. Then immediately cursed his luck. 

The place he had crashed into appeared to be a warehouse that was either near or on the docks if the overwhelming smell of salt water was anything to go by. The place was well maintained and belonged to someone if the man staring down at him was anything to go by. 

“Shit,” Simon said as he sprang to his feet with inhuman speed,only to lose his balance and fall on his butt. “Um, hi,” he stuttered awkwardly as he slowly got to his feet. “nice place you got here, looks real homely. I’m guessing it’s yours, i mean you are here so it only makes sense that it is.” 

The man just continues to stare at him with a raised eyebrow and Simon suddenly feels underdressed in his t-shirt and jeans while the man is wearing a crisp suit-and it suddenly hits Simon that he still has the blood on his shirt from earlier.

“This isn’t mine,” he says rather loudly before realizing that that probably wasn’t the best thing to say. “Not that I murdered anyone, because I swear to-” Simon chokes on the word. Crap, he forgot that he couldn’t say it anymore. “ I swear that it isn’t mine, I would never kill anyone I promise you-”

The man raises his hand in a manner to tell Simon to be quiet and he isn’t ready for the wave of nostalgia and quilt that it brings but he stops talking nonetheless. 

“I know that the blood is not yours,” the man says with an accent that sounds slightly ittalian. “I am curious however, as to why you crashed through my wall.”

“Oh, that.” Simon said, the nervousness from before returning full force. “Well, you see, I was uhhhh, running having a midnight jog, you know like one does, when all of a sudden the building just showed up-right out of nowhere-almost as if it just poofed into existence. And well, I didn’t have time to stop, because it caught me off guard, cause that’s what happens when one suddenly sees a building pop into existence and i just sorta, fell into the wall.” 

“Uh huh,” the man said with a disbelieving tone. “And you just happened to be perfectly fine after running into said concrete wall.”The man indicated to the wall with his head. 

“Well, maybe I just got super lucky,” Simon says while he faks a yawn, “you know what i’m getting really tired, so how about we just continue this conversation later, maybe meet up to get a late night coffee or-”

“I highly doubt that that would be necessary,” the man cut him off, a confident grin appearing on his face “seeing as the night children usually don’t sleep until dawn.” 

Simons eyes widened as he swiftly brought a hand up to his mouth and sure enough he felt the tips of his fangs against his fingers. They must have came out while I was talking, Simon thought to himself. That would explain how he knew, but that doesn’t explain why he said it like that. Does he know about downworlders? Shadowhunters? Just how much does he know about the Shadow world?

“I’m sure you have questions,” the man said, snapping his mind out of his thoughts. “I do as well, perhaps I could talk to your sire-”

“My what?” Simon interrupted, with a tilt of his head that, no doubt, made him look like a lost puppy. 

“Your sire is the one who turned you,” the man says answering his question. “If you would lead me to them I'm sure they could not only answer some of my questions.”

“I don’t know where they are,” Simon said after a bit of hesitation. It wasn’t technically a lie, after all he knew Camile was somewhere in New York, he just didn’t know which part. “The last time I saw them was a bit before I, well you know, died.” He said the last part like it was a punch to the gut. 

The man looks at him with an inspecting gaze, almost as if he’s gathering clues for a mystery. 

“How long have you been a vampire,” The man asked in a hushed voice. 

“That depends,” Simon says as he looks at his shoes. “On what time it is.”

“Your younger than I thought,” the man says as his eyes widen in shock. “That doesn’t matter now, what matters is that you need a place to live and someone to teach you about your new life. Which reminds me, we really need to get going. Llaw eraper,” the man says while reaching his hand out towards the wall behind him. 

Simon hears what sounds like rocks hitting each other and turns around to see that the wall is fixing itself brick by brick. Simon looks back to the man, aghast by what he saw. 

“How did you,” Simon says while indicating to the wall, and back to the man in front of him. He didn’t think that the man was a warlock, well at least not before. He had seen Magnus use magic before but he never heard him say anything before doing a spell. He just sort of did them. Not only that but he didn’t see any warlock marks, his skin was cacasian, not blue or green, and his eyes were green with regular pupils. He could have been hiding it with a glamor, again like Magnus did, or maybe it was too subtle to notice?

“I’m not a warlock, but I can understand your confusion. Now like I said, we must be going, it’s already late and if we stay any longer, we risk you being outside in daylight.” The man said as he lead him towards the doors. Simon followed after, not ready to test the whole “can vampires survive sunlight theory” yet. 

As soon as Simon got out of the warehouse he was overwhelmed by the smell of salt and the sound of waves crashing against the shore line. Simon cupped his ears and closed his eyes as to prevent them from watering-could he even cry anymore?

The man put a hand on his back and,if the smell of saltwater lessening was anything to go by, lead him away from the warehouse and towards the city. Simon opened his eyes again and saw that it was a relatively small town. It wasn’t as big as New York yet it wasn’t as small as the one in Because of Winn Dixie, if anything it looked straight out of a comic book. It was also quieter than New York, barely any cars were on the road and the only sound to be heard where that of the wind rustling against the leaves. The man paid no mind to the scenery and started walking before turning into an alley. Simon followed after him and found the man waiting for him outside an old phone booth that looked as if it had seen better days. 

The man gesture for Simon to get and after accidentally breaking to door off, which caused them both to flinch and for Simon to say “sorry” like it was a marta, before the man got in behind him. 

“Giovanni Zatara, authorization code 11, plus guest.” The man, Giovanni, says

“Recognized Giovanni Zatara, 11,” a Robotic voice says from somewhere in the booth and it’s all the warning Simon gets before his vision is engulfed in a bright light.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simon meets Zatanna, also he and Giovanni talk about life, mainly his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late for my standard, I had a date and time I wanted to submit this, but I didn't. This chapter is longer, way longer than the first chapter, I hope you have fun reading it and that you have a lovely day. Now on with the story.

Simon’s mind was restless with questions. He didn’t know much about the man that had let him into his house other than that he knew about that downworld and seemed vaguely familiar. He wasn’t sure why, but after he lied down to think about everything, the man had struck a familiar chord in his mind. Like he’d seen him before.

He wanted to ask him, the more he thought the more questions he wanted to ask, but he knew he couldn’t. Because he knew that if he started asking questions, Giovanni would want to ask Simon ones of his own. Ones that would probably end with him going back to New York, and that was the last place he wanted to be. 

With a sigh, Simon rose from the bed and decided to take a look around the place to get his mind off things. Maybe even take a shower so he could wash off all the dried blood and dirt that he was still caked in. When he opened the door, he was smeet with a heavenly, rich scent that made his mouth water-well would have made his water. Following his nose, he was lead down the hall to a staircase, he barely noticed how his feet fast he was moving. 

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he was met with the sight of a living room that had the courteens drawn tight. He scanned the room before his eyes landed on a small kitchen tucked in the corner where he saw what the source of the delicious smell. 

Giovanni had cut his thumb. 

And it was bleeding. 

Simon immediately felt guilty. The man had let him into his house, showed him nothing but kindness, and the moment he starts bleeding. Simon automatically thinks as him as food. He really was a monster wasn’t he. 

“Morning,” Simon says as casually as he could while making his way towards Giovanni. Looking closely, he could see that Giovanni was cutting up strawberries. 

“Good morning,” Giovanni replied after muttering what must have been a spell under his breath because the cut instantly healed. “If you do not mind me asking, what is your name exactly?” He added with a raised eyebrow while he put some of the strawberries into a bowl of sugar. 

“Um, Simon. Simon Lewis sir?” Simon leaned over the counter and tried to see what was in the oven. 

“Good,” Giovanni nodded. “That should make it easier to find your clan.”

Simon froze before looking at Giovanni with wide, fearful eyes. Giovanni let out a tired sigh before looking Simon in the eyes. He suddenly looked older, tiered even, like most of his strength was being used to have this discussion. 

“Look, I get that you are new to this. That you did not want to be this, that you didn’t have a choice in being this. But you need to understand that having a clan is essential, they can teach you things that only they know about. They can protect you during hunts, they can keep your safe for far longer than anyone else could. I’m not saying that you have to abandon the family you have, but you need to acknowledge the one you’ve become a part of.”   
“Okay but like you said: I never asked for this.” Simon clenches his fist, “I didn’t ask to lose everything overnight and become some undead freak that drains people and messes with their head the whole time. I don’t want to be that-I-I’d rather starve myself to death than become a monster.”

“You are not a monster,” Giovanni said factly, “you are just a young man whose life was cut short.” Giovanni pinched the bridge of his nose before adding,”If you would like you could stay here for a while. My knowledge about the Night Children is limited, so I won’t have all the answers however I can help you control the basics of your abilities until you are ready to rejoin your clan. Does this work for you?”

Simon thought it over, if he stayed here he could start over. He wouldn’t have to worry about hurting, or facing, the people he cared about it. Besides, this wouldn’t be forever, only until he could trust himself to be able to interact with other people again without hurting them. With that in mind, Simon nodded his head in approval. 

“Good,” Giovanni said with a small smile that soon vanished as he took on a more serious look. “Now, before we start you should-”

“Dad,” a young girls voice said from upstairs, the sound of footsteps following soon afterwards. “Please tell me you didn’t just offer Zackery,” the voice trailed off and Simon looked over his shoulder to see a young girl that unmistakably Giovanni’s daughter. She had the same black hair as he did but with bright blue eyes instead of green, she couldn’t have been older than thirteen and was wearing a bewildered expression on her face. 

“Zatana,” Giovanni said, the serious expression on his face was replaced with a fond smile. “Glad to see your awake, this is Simon,” Simon gave a small wave, “he’ll be staying with us for a while.” 

“Um okay, that’s cool?” Zatana said as she cautiously joined Simon at the kitchen island. She kept looking at him as if he was a science experiment that wasn’t working out. Almost as if she kept staring Simon would do something that would answer her questions. 

Giovanni gave Simon a look that told him that the discussion wasn’t over before having a discussion with his daughter about, what Simon assumed, was a club that had something to do with caves. Spelunking maybe? Simon tuned them out before reaching over the counter and picking up one of the strawberries that Giovanni had been cutting earlier, whatever was in the oven still had five more minutes left, and plopping it in his mouth. 

He was immediately hit with the urge to vomit. What was usually sweet and juice, had instead tasted ash like and dry, not only that but the texture had somehow turned mushy and smily. Simon grabbed a nearby napkin and spit it out quickly before gagging for what felt like hours as he tried to get the taste out of his mouth.   
Simon looked over to see that the duo had stopped to stare at him. Giovanni with a sad, pitying look and Zatanna with wide eyes full of shook and concern. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, I assumed you knew.” Giovanni said. “The thing is after your,” he paused as he tried to pick out the right word, “transformation, you can no longer eat food, or at least, that’s my understanding of it.” 

“Oh,” Simon said while looking away, he didn’t want to meet their eyes. “I guess, I-I must have-forgot about that.” 

They didn’t say anything after that, Giovanni started to get something from around the kitchen while Zatana and Simon sat in silence. Simon, because he felt like a fool and Zatanna because was, unknown to both of them, on the verge of figuring something the strange new guest out. 

“THAT'S IT,” She exclaimed while throwing her hands up in triumph. Giovanni almost dropped the plates he had been holding and Simon nearly fell out of his chair due to the sudden outburst. “Sorry,” Zatanna said as she helped Simon up, “it’s just that. I figured out that weird vibe I was getting from you.” She then turned to her dad with her arms crossed. “You could have told me he was a vampire you know.I mean iIt’s not like I would have told anyone.”

“I know, I was going to properly introduce you to each other after I had the situation worked out.” 

“Okay but what exactly is the situation? Is he just going to be living here or is he going to go out and meet with everyone else? Also how are we going to feed him?”

“I’m good with staying here during the daytime,’ Simon said. “I mean I can always go out at-what’s that smell?”

The trio looked over and saw that smoke was leaking out of the oven. Giovanni cursed before saying, “pot evots eht no doof eht tup dna nevo eht nepo.” Causing the oven door to open and allowing a pan of now burned Cinnamon rolls to land on the stove top. Giovanni started coughing as he grabbed a towel and tried to fan the smoke away, this only caused the fowl smelling smoke to reach the smoke detector faster, thus causing it to go off. Simon covered his ears, the once annoying sound of the smoke detectors beeping was now deafening. He barely caught Zatana’s muffled voice mention a window. 

“Do not open a window,” Giovanni yelled as he grabbed a broom and started hitting the device inorder to make it stop. “Or the doors!”

“Why wouldn’t you want me to-oh right-gosh i’m an idiot.” Zatana fished a piece of paper out of her pocket before scribbling something down. “Alright Zatana, let’s hope you spelled this right. Raeppasid ekoms.” Just like that, the smoke faded away as soon as Giovanni had found the off switch for the smoke detector. “Hey, it worked! I actually spelled it right this time!”

“Good, now if only I could save breakfast,” Giovanni said as he disposed on the cinnamon rolls into the garbage can. 

“Got to admit though, it’s pretty ironic, considering what you do for a living.” Zatana responded with a smile before making her way to the fridge. 

“What do you do for a living,” Simon asked as he slowly lowered his hands from his ears, they were still ringing a bit, but not enough so he couldn’t hear anything. 

“That’s not important right now,” Giovanni said dismissively. “What we need to discuss is-” Giovanni groaned as the land line went off. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered under his breath before he went off to answer it. “Hello, yes I remembered but I thought it wasn’t for a few more hours. Yes I'm aware of the time difference but still,” Giovanni sighed. “Fine i’ll be over in a few, Giovanni out.” Giovanni hung up the phone before turning to look at the two. 

“Was that the league,” Zatana asked. 

“Yes, the meeting should not take long, a few hours at most. Until I get back your in charge,”

“YES!”

“If anything happens go into your bed room and lock the door. I’ve enchanted it so that no one can go in once the door has been shut without permission from the person who spends the most time in it.” 

“Okay dad,” Zatana smiled before walking over to her dad to give him a goodbye hug. Giovanni returned the hug and added a quick kiss to his daughter's forehead. Simon looked away, he didn’t want to intrude on the moment. The two soon separated and Giovanni went up the stairs and was soon disappeared out the back door, locking it with a firm click. 

“Soo,” Zatana said as she turned to face him with a mischievous smile. “What do you want to do first? Netflix, bake a pie, go through the attic and see what could possibly summon a demon?,” she asked nonchalantly, before her stomach interrupted her, “Or maybe breakfast?” 

“You don’t get guest that often do you?” Simon asked.

“No,” Zatana said as she searched pantry for the box of Fruity Pebbles. “My dads usually super paranoid about who comes in and out of the house. I remember one time it took me a whole month just to let him invite a friend over to help me study for a test. “

“Yeah my moms the same way,” Simon said with a smile. “My friend Eric wanted to come over and she bribed the doorman not to let him in until she had done a background check on him.” 

“For real?” Zatanna said as she capped the milk before taking a bite of her cereal. “Why did she do that?”

“I may or may not have said that he looked like a stoner?” 

Zatana covered her mouth to keep herself from spitting out her breakfast, her shoulders shook with laughter. “Did you really tell her that?” 

“Yea, that was not one of my finer moments.” 

“You could say that again. So, do you want to watch something now, or do you want to see what’s in the attic?” 

“The attic I guess.”

“Great, because i’ve been hearing something running around up there and if it turns out to be a demon, I have someone to shove in front me.” 

“Hahha,” Simon said sarcastically, “your hilarious. You are joking right?” 

Zatanna just grabbed his hand and dragged him up the stairs, he was already starting to regret this. 

Two hours later. 

Simon face planted on the couch with a huff, he was exhausted and covered head to toe in dust in cobwebs. Zatanna groaned not far from him, she was in the same shape he was in, ergo with a few footprints across her pajamas and face. 

“It’s official,” Simon said, his voice muffled by the plush red cushion. “Rabbits are the worst and if I ever see another one again it will be too soon.” 

“You can say that again,” Zatana said as she threw an arm over her head. “I still can’t believe how many there were, what use could my dad possibly have for that many rabbits?!!”

“Petting zoo,” Simon suggested with a shrug. “Maybe a really big rabbit stew?”

Zatanna snorted in response, before throwing a couch cushion at his head. “Your a dork, you know that.” 

“I would rather be a clean dork,” Simon said as he begrudgingly got up. “Do you mind if I use the shower?”

“Second door on the right, i’ll leave some clothes for you to change into outside the door.” 

“Thanks,” Simon said before walking up the stairs and towards the holy grail that was hot water. It took him awhile to get fully clean, the blood and dirt had dried into a second skin, but he eventually got it all off. He half expected his skin to have turned pink from being scrubbed rigorously, but it was still the pale shade it had been from last night. Guess it was always going to be like this. It was at that point that Simon decided to quickly change into the clothes that Z had lent him, or rather the clothes that she had gotten out of her dad's closet. The shirt was a nice, but still semi casual, white button up while the pants were so long that he had to cuff the three times just to keep himself from tripping. 

When he came down the stairs, he could see that Zatanna had taken up a corner of the couch, several blankets were draped over her and she had a bowl of popcorn on her lap. 

“Hey,” she said when she saw him. “I’ve got ‘The Office’ set up, just grab a blanket so we can get started.” 

“Friends is better,” Simon said as he settled into one of the corners of the couch only to be bombarded with popcorn. 

“Lies,” Zatana said before pushing play. 

Simon rolled his eyes but kept quiet as the episode played. The two sat in mostly silence, the only thing breaking it was the occasional sounds of laughter from the two. At some point, Simon felt himself start to drift off, 

“Hey Simon,” Zatanna said, “can I ask you a question?’

“You just did,” Simon said with a soft yawn. “What is it?”

“What are you going to do about food?”

“I don’t know, I mean I could always eat the rabbits.” 

Zattanna let out a chuckle before saying, “I don’t think that’s going to be as easy as you think.”

“True,” Simon curled further into the couch as he let out another yawn. “Fluffy little bastards would probably bite my face off the moment the cage was open.”

“That or they would make you into a Simon stew,” Zatana said with a smile. She looked over to see that Simon had fallen asleep. Zatanna looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was about noon, guess vampires really are nocturnal. Zatanna sighed before taking another look at Simon, the episode completely forgotten. What were they going to do about feeding him? Biting people was out of the question, that was obvious: animals might work, but would they be enough to sustain him would he even want to eat an animal? The blood bank was also another option but it might be suspicious if they kept asking people for blood. Besides, the league would find out about that sooner or later and that would make things worse. 

The only ones in the league who knew about the shadow world were her dad, Aquman, and Wonderwoman. No one else. She had asked her dad about why that was a while ago and he had told her that it was because they didn’t want to risk any of the league going after anyone in the Shadow World. If they did then they could risk not only exposing the world of demons to the public, but it could easily end up with them on Shadowhunters bad side. Which limited her options even more. 

Come on Z, she thought to herself, think: what would you do to feed a vampire that wouldn’t make them uncomfortable? 

Then it hit her. Making sure that Simon was still asleep, she crept over to the kitchen and, as quietly as she could, dug out the ice cream maker. This was going to be fun, tricky, especially when it came to the ingredients, but fun nonetheless. She just hoped that she didn’t have to resort to using the rabbits. 

Simon woke up peacefully, slowly, he rose from the cocoon of blankets and stretched. Looking at the clock, he saw that it was about six in the afternoon. Guess he really was nocturnal. Simon turned to see if Zatana was awake only to be met with the sight of blankets and a half eaten bowl of popcorn. He looked around the room and saw that she was leaning on the island with an arsenal of cooking ingredients and supplies surrounding her.

Curiosity piqued, he crept closer and saw that she was facing an ice cream maker. There was a note attached to it that read: took a quick nap, samples are in the fridge -Z. Simon picked Z up as cautiously as he could without waking her before gently placing her back on the couch. He grabbed one of blankets and tucked in under her chin before making his way to see what she had been making. He saw a glass of a chunky reddish brown substance with a note that said “B-positive” on it and knew that it must have been some form of blood. There was no other way to explain the pun she had used. Simon grabbed the glass and searched the kitchen for a spoon, it might not look edible, but it would be rude not to have eaten when she put this much effort into it. 

Once he found the spoon, and prayed that it wouldn't be the second thing to kill him, he took a bite. It wasn’t that bad, if go past the first bite. It tasted chalky and powdery, like someone had poured too much salt and then added a bag of flour. The texture on the other hand wasn’t that bad, it reminded him of crunchy peanut butter, only thicker. The only problem he wasn’t sure if he couldn’t swallow it because he was dead or if it was just that bad. Simon soon settled on simply spitting it into the sink before putting the rest of it back into the fridge. He then cleaned up the kitchen, it was the least he could do, and tried to put all of the kitchen utensils back in their proper place before joining Zatanna on the couch and turning on Friends. 

Giovanni arrived not long after that with a bag of takeout food and an apologetic look on his face. He told Simon that the meeting had run a bit later than it was supposed to, Simon just kept reassuring him that it was fine. 

“Thank you for looking after her,” he said as he ate out of his to go box. “I’m glad she had someone to keep her company while I was away.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Simon said with a shrug. “It’s the least I could do.” He wanted to ask what kind of work he was doing, but figured that that was a question for another day. 

After that the two talked about what Simon was going to do in terms of College. Simon had told him that he was pursuing a degree in accounting, which Giovanni raised an eyebrow at, but he couldn’t exactly go to school while he was here. Giovanni said that he could always sign up for online school, that way he would have something to do at night, he also hinted at Simon getting something to play music on, which surprised him since he never said anything about being a musician. Simon thought about changing his major for a bit, but decided against it. It might be nice to have a piece of his old life with him, a reminder of home. He also talked about scheduling his training, he had a copy of The Shadow Codex-which Simon knew because he had thrown it at one of the rabbits but he wasn’t going to tell Giovanni that-and was apparently like a beginners guide to being to the shadow world. In addition to this he also knew a guy who could give him some tips about his abilities, but he wouldn’t be able to do that until next week. 

Eventually, both Giovanni and Zatanna went off to bed, the latter doing so closer to midnight thanks to the tap she took, leaving Simon alone to his own devices. He was really doing this. He was going to start his life all over again, where he was going to go with it and what he was going to do, he didn’t know. All he knew was that he was both anxious and excited to get started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Simon meets the team or Simon finds out why Giovanni looks familiar.


End file.
